So, the seven Form Specializations have never quite felt right to me in a way I couldn't quite articulate.

A thought has finally occurred to me in that regard: a secondary "Form Talent" (or Primary for Shii-Cho) would help.

Below are some off-the-top-of-my-head ideas. Probably unbalanced af but that's okay they're not meant to be balanced yet. Just getting a feel for it.

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Shii-Cho Strike: When you hit an adversary with a Lightsaber (Brawn) check, you may make a Melee check at the same difficulty to deal additional damage equal to your Successes. Failures beyond Successes do not reduce damage.

Makashi Taunt: You may use Presence instead of Willpower when making Coercion checks. In addition, when you use Parry, you may take 1 Strain to reduce the attack's damage by your Coercion Ranks.

Soresu Counter: You may use Intellect instead of Willpower when making Vigilance checks. In addition, you may take 1 Strain to use your Vigilance dice pool, inverted (green dice > purple, yellow > red, blue > black), as the attacker's difficulty.

Ataru Leaping: You may use Agility instead of Brawn for Athletics checks to jump. In addition, when you make a Lightsaber (Agility) check against an adversary, you may take 1 Strain to increase your Defense (adding up to 4 black 6-siders) by your Athletics ranks.

Shien Patience: Once per encounter, after using Parry or Reflect or making a Lightsaber (Cunning) check, you may recover Strain equal to your ranks in Perception.

Niman Focus: When you hit an adversary with a Lightsaber (Willpower) check, you may take 1 Strain to add damage equal to your Discipline Ranks.

Juyo/Vaapad already have secondary Talents so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I also don't know where I'd put these in the Talent Trees, properly. Let me know your thoughts, of course.

I like where you're going with this, but:

17 minutes ago, Machaeus said:

Shii-Cho Strike: When you hit an adversary with a Lightsaber (Brawn) check, you may make a Melee check at the same difficulty to deal additional damage equal to your Successes. Failures beyond Successes do not reduce damage.

I'd make that a strain cost like Parry/Reflect, otherwise damage can get out of hand.

10 minutes ago, Machaeus said:

Makashi Taunt: In addition, when you use Parry, you may take 1 Strain to reduce the attack's damage by your Coercion Ranks.

Is that in addition to Parry? If so, that is very OP. I'd suggest changing that to flip a DP, not unlike the Soft Spot talent (just inverted).

12 minutes ago, Machaeus said:

Soresu Counter: In addition, you may take 1 Strain to use your Vigilance dice pool, inverted (green dice > purple, yellow > red, blue > black), as the attacker's difficulty.

This, in combination with the "Use intellect for Vigilance" is OP. Pretty much certain to be at least daunting. Either it should be limited use (i.e. once per encounter) or it should require a DP.

13 minutes ago, Machaeus said:

Ataru Leaping: In addition, when you make a Lightsaber (Agility) check against an adversary, you may take 1 Strain to increase your Defense (adding up to 4 black 6-siders) by your Athletics ranks.

This isn't quite as bad, but I'd limit it (once per encounter) or make it an Advantage expenditure (3 Advantage/Triumph, replacing the option to increase Melee or Ranged Defense by 1).

16 minutes ago, Machaeus said:

Niman Focus: When you hit an adversary with a Lightsaber (Willpower) check, you may take 1 Strain to add damage equal to your Discipline Ranks.

Again, I think this should be like Soft Spot, so it should require a DP.

16 minutes ago, Machaeus said:

Shien Patience: Once per encounter, after using Parry or Reflect or making a Lightsaber (Cunning) check, you may recover Strain equal to your ranks in Perception.

This looks quite good, but is very weak in comparison to the others. Imposing the limitations I suggested would go a long way to bringing them up to par.

All these "Add a DP cost" notes...I clearly didn't think some of these through.

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(Shii-Cho:) I'd make that a strain cost like Parry/Reflect, otherwise damage can get out of hand.

Obvious fix. 2 Strain might be enough? (It'd probably still be a 20/25 Talent)

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(Makashi:) Is that in addition to Parry? If so, that is very OP. I'd suggest changing that to flip a DP, not unlike the Soft Spot talent (just inverted).

A DP seems a bit much to me for some reason, but okay.

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(Soresu:) This, in combination with the "Use intellect for Vigilance" is OP. Pretty much certain to be at least daunting. Either it should be limited use (i.e. once per encounter) or it should require a DP.

Probably do a DP when I think about it.

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(Ataru:) This isn't quite as bad, but I'd limit it (once per encounter) or make it an Advantage expenditure (3 Advantage/Triumph, replacing the option to increase Melee or Ranged Defense by 1).

Yeah, I knew it was lower tier than the rest. I'm thinking I'll rewrite this one as "gain an automatic 1 Advantage/odd Rank for 1 DP." Tell me your thoughts on that.

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(Shien:) This looks quite good, but is very weak in comparison to the others. Imposing the limitations I suggested would go a long way to bringing them up to par.

I don't know why this reply is so weird to me, but it is.

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(Niman:) Again, I think this should be like Soft Spot, so it should require a DP.

Maybe I'm not familiar with Soft Spot. Okay, DP.

"Thanks for the in-depth feedback," he said as he tried to hide the winces of pain.

8 minutes ago, Machaeus said:

Maybe I'm not familiar with Soft Spot. Okay, DP.

Soft Spot: After making a successful attack with a non vehicle/starship weapon, the character may spend one Destiny Point to add damage equal to Cunning to one hit of the successful attack.

9 minutes ago, Machaeus said:

(Shii-Cho): Obvious fix. 2 Strain might be enough? (It'd probably still be a 20/25 Talent)

Yeah, that might be enough.

10 minutes ago, Machaeus said:

(Makashi): A DP seems a bit much to me for some reason, but okay.

Again, this is part of my comparison to Soft Spot. In this case, a DP might be a tad much, but I think it is the best option. Part of it is that late game, if a PC has a particular skill that gives an ability like that, they can boost it and then it's an extra 5 damage reduction every time. Adding a DP limits how often it can be used.

12 minutes ago, Machaeus said:

(Ataru): Yeah, I knew it was lower tier than the rest. I'm thinking I'll rewrite this one as "gain an automatic 1 Advantage/odd Rank for 1 DP." Tell me your thoughts on that.

Not sure what you mean by "odd rank", but a DP for 1 Advantage is really weak. I think that adding Defense like you originally suggested makes sense because of the idea that they are staying super mobile and are hard to hit.

15 minutes ago, Machaeus said:

(Shien): I don't know why this reply is so weird to me, but it is.

I phrased that poorly. Allow me to try again: "This looks quite good, but is quite weak compared to the other proposed talents, in that it doesn't do or prevent any damage, just allows you a one-time boost of Strain (though that is quite good, just not as good). Imposing the limitations that I suggested on those talents would go a long way to bringing this talent onto more of an equal footing." Is that any better?

18 minutes ago, Machaeus said:

Maybe I'm not familiar with Soft Spot. Okay, DP.

A lot of the talents you suggested are somewhat in the vein of Soft Spot, as it's [cost] to add ranks in X skill/characteristic, or something similar in concept.

20 minutes ago, Machaeus said:

"Thanks for the in-depth feedback," he said as he tried to hide the winces of pain.

Glad I could help!

Hey, at least I'm working with you instead of just shooting down your ideas... When I first got on the forum, I had several ideas for house rules, and I caught a lot of flak for them.

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I phrased that poorly. Allow me to try again: "This looks quite good, but is quite weak compared to the other proposed talents, in that it doesn't do or prevent any damage, just allows you a one-time boost of Strain (though that is quite good, just not as good). Imposing the limitations that I suggested on those talents would go a long way to bringing this talent onto more of an equal footing." Is that any better?

Nah, I just mean, I usually have trouble with a lack of Strain, so I figured that one would be the most powerful. Go figure!

Then again, I'm in a TOR setting, so it's not like lightsabers are uncommon and whatnot.

So bleh.

36 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Not sure what you mean by "odd rank", but a DP for 1 Advantage is really weak. [...]

Allow me to rephrase: Ranks 1, 3, and 5 give a free Advantage. Not just 1. So most lightsabers that's an auto-crit IIRC.

The inspiration was Obi-Wan in Ep 1, in case it wasn't obvious.

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Glad I could help!

Hey, at least I'm working with you instead of just shooting down your ideas... When I first got on the forum, I had several ideas for house rules, and I caught a lot of flak for them.

Hah, thanks for being friendly about it then

3 minutes ago, Machaeus said:

Allow me to rephrase: Ranks 1, 3, and 5 give a free Advantage. Not just 1. So most lightsabers that's an auto-crit IIRC.

The inspiration was Obi-Wan in Ep 1, in case it wasn't obvious.

A better way to say it that is more consistent with phrasings in other places within the RAW is "half ranks rounded up" so rank 5 would be 2.5 rounded to 3 for 3 Advantage. In that case, I think it would be fine. I still like the idea of adding Defense, but that's good too.

7 minutes ago, Machaeus said:

Nah, I just mean, I usually have trouble with a lack of Strain, so I figured that one would be the most powerful. Go figure!

Then again, I'm in a TOR setting, so it's not like lightsabers are uncommon and whatnot.

Don't get me wrong, getting back Strain is very useful, but when you look at it in this case, it really amounts to one free use of Parry/Reflect if you even have enough ranks to make it do that. It's good, but it's not that good.